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New podcast episode – ELSI Dialogues: The role of biobanks in realising the One Health approach
New podcast episode
ELSI Dialogues: The role of biobanks in realising the One Health approach
This article is 510 words and a two-minute read.
“One Health is fundamentally about cooperation.”
On 24 March 2026, three expert speakers joined us for a new ELSI Dialogues webinar to discuss the role biobanks can play in realising the One Health strategy. With moderator Mónica Cano Abadia, Josephine Uldry, Jakob Zinsstag and Adam Strobeyko discussed One Health from philosophical, societal, legal and practical perspectives, highlighting the complexity of the topic. You can now revisit this webinar as video recording or enjoy it as BBMRI-ERIC podcast episode.
The goal of One Health is to balance and optimise the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment. This view moves away from an anthropocentric approach centred around humans and recognises how tightly these realms and their health are interwoven. This is a crucial step towards a healthier future as it is especially important for tackling emerging zoonotic diseases (infectious diseases transmitted from non-human animals to humans), antimicrobial resistance, food safety risks, environmental pollution and global health security.
Implementing One Health broadly and globally is a continuous process. At the moment, many One Health initiatives still operate within regulatory frameworks that differ across sectors and lack coordination. Dr Adam Strobeyko (Swiss Biobanking and Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute) further addressed the legal dimensions of implementing one Health which is still challenged by this fragmentation of efforts:
“Each of these international organisations tried to define One Health in a way that aligns with its mandate and as a result, instruments are driven mostly by institutional agendas rather than common good.”
Realising One Health thus calls for a convergence of legal provisions and regulatory compliance to become effective. As Prof. Jakob Zinsstag (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute) – a pioneer of the One Health concept stated it in the webinar:
“One Health is fundamentally about cooperation.”
Biobanks at the centre of One Health
Biobanking across human and non-human domains can play a key role in operationalising the One Health approach. They can support the collection, storage and sharing of human, animal, plant and environmental samples and data as indispensable resources for surveillance, research and policymaking.
Josephine Uldry (Swiss Biobanking) highlighted several examples where biobanks can be central to One Health:
“One Health is a broad topic and many different scientific biobanking projects can be described in a One Health framework. I will just give you some examples: Infectious diseases biobanks when the purpose is to track emerging diseases across different species, environmental Biobanks, when we want to monitor the pollution and the changes in the ecosystem of veterinary biobanks when we want to study zoonoses or antimicrobial resistance.”
BBMRI-ERIC and One Health
Our recently published 10-Year Roadmap (2025-2035) and our current Work Programme (2025-2027) are guided by the One Health approach as clear direction for our strategic development and actions. Follow our news on the website and on our socials for more info and future updates on the topic.
Watch the video recording here or listen to the podcast here.
Acknowledgements:
EvolveBBMRI has received funding from the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
Funded by the EU:
